Happy Monthiversary: April 2013 In ReviewBetween EarthBound, the last real Wii RPG, three RPGFan podcasts and so much more, April was an exciting month.05.01.13 - 1:36 PM

It's Month in Review time! We didn't get a ton of feedback on last month's debut, but what we did get was positive, so we hope you enjoy our second edition of this feature, looking back at the happenings of April around RPGFan.

The biggest change in April versus March was the amount of game announcements: I'm still amazed that 14 RPG/adventure titles were announced last month. In April, the only new game announcements – localizations aside – came from Nintendo's latest Nintendo Direct on April 17th. Instead of a dedicated 'Announcements' section this time, I'm including a list of the bevy of media updates we had: There was a ton of great eye candy released, from screens, to artwork, and plenty of videos.

Let's get to it!

Game of the Month

Normally I'll talk about our Game of the Month in this space, but one of the most serious contenders literally just released yesterday, so we're giving everything a fair shake before we decide. It's been a tight race, but you'll see the results before the weekend!

Podcast Updates & Feature

We posted one special feature in April, Rob's Top 5 Underwhelming Storylines. Rob isn't as much of a negative person as some people see him, but if a developer lets him down, you'll hear about it.

On a more upbeat note, we enjoyed three podcast episodes this month. Our flagship podcast Random Encounter released episode 60, which was one of my personal all-time favorite episodes. "Story Time" got heavily into the importance of story, characters, narrative, and much, much more. Being able to have these kinds of discussions is part of what makes working here so much fun.

We also got Random Encounter episode 61, "Sniffle Direct," wherein a sickly Rob was joined by Stephen and Derek to talk about Nintendo Direct and the 'Soul' trifecta: Soul Hackers, Soul Sacrifice, and maybe a little bit on Dark Souls II.

Stephen and Derek of course host Rhythm Encounter as well, and they recorded the second part of their Phantasy Star music series, with episode 4: "IDOLA" The Phantasy. If you weren't completely sold on Stephen's street cred with Phantasy Star knowledge, you will be now.

Notable Releases

April wasn't packed with releases, but what it had were a handful of games with a very passionate following.

The free-to-play Age of Wushu launched on April 10th, and if the idea of an MMORPG set in the Ming Dynasty and some different ideas (no leveling? no job system?) sounds interesting, you might want to take a look. The following week, we saw Southend's side-scrolling action RPG Sacred Citadel released for PC, PSN and XBLA. Also that week, Muteki Corp brought their iOS/PC/Mac retro RPG Dragon Fantasy Book I to PSN (both PS3 and Vita), upgrading from the original 8-bit styled graphics to a 16-bit style.

All of those are well and good, but it's the other four games that people were clamoring for the most. XSEED, as you may know, loves its fans. Apparently releasing one of the "Project Rainfall" trio last year with The Last Story wasn't enough, and they brought us the third and final game of the campaign: Pandora's Tower for Wii. I think most people had given up on the game, so thanks, XSEED, for being you. The same exact day, Atlus brought us the 3DS updated version of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. The original game, released in 1997 & 1999 for the Saturn and PlayStation, respectively, never saw the light of day outside Japan, so MegaTen fans are glad to finally see an official English release.

NIS America's release of the Imageepoch-developed Black Rock Shooter was a surprise, as it didn't even have a release date until earlier in the month. Released exclusively digital via PSN, the game hit many countries, but notably will not be available in Canada or Mexico for unspecified licensing reasons. Of course, despite the game's marketing in Japan, Black Rock Shooter is much less of an RPG than we believed, but you'll hear about that in our review...

Capcom released a semi-expansion to last year's Dragon's Dogma with Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. While offering new content and challenges, it also includes the full original game in the box, if you missed it last year. We should have a review on this shortly, so keep an eye out!

Lastly, yesterday we got Keiji Inafune and developer Comcept's Soul Sacrifice for the PS Vita. A very graphic action RPG with music by Yasunori Mitsuda, Stephen quite enjoyed his time with the game.

April Game & Music Reviews

As you may have heard, John Tucker is apparently aiming to review all of the things now, so let's look at everything he reviewed in April:

April was a great time for companies to announce limited editions, it seems. Aksys Games is giving the PS Vita-enhanced Muramasa Rebirth the LE treatment with a system face cover, skin, pouch and framed lithograph. Namco Bandai amazed many of us by not only bringing Tales of Xillia to North America at long last, but will be offering a stunning Limited Edition package complete with a detailed Milla figurine in tow. Another shocker is that we're getting crazy crossover Project X Zone at all, but it too will have a Limited Edition that includes a mini soundtrack, art book, and poster.

With the bankruptcy of THQ, its properties have been going to the highest bidder, and many wondered where the Darksiders franchise would end up. The answer? Nordic Games, who owns such franchises as Arcania, Spellforce and Dungeon Lords. Who'd have guessed?

Oh, Nintendo. When you started doing these constant Nintendo Direct events, we had no idea what to expect. Sometimes low key, often times of less interest to the RPG community, this most recent event was so packed with things we're craving, it was remarkable. Not only did we learn that a new Zelda game – set in the world of the SNES' A Link to the Past – is coming to 3DS, it's coming out THIS year? The Capcom-made Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons titles are coming to the 3DS eShop at the end of May, and the latest Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, got a release date of August 11th. Professor Layton's final game, the 3DS Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is coming in 2014.

Fans have been lusting after Square Enix's Bravely Default: Flying Fairy since 2011, and finally, we'll get a chance to play it, thanks to Nintendo, who is working with Square Enix to finally bring the title to both North America and Europe. With NA getting the title in 2014 and Europe later in 2013, it's caused some to speculate if Nintendo of Europe might be handling localization duties again, as they did with Xenoblade Chronicles. Finally, in what has got to be one of the most-requested Virtual Console releases ever, EarthBound (aka Mother 2) is finally going to see a release out West on the Wii U Virtual Console later this year. This too, leads to speculation, and whether EarthBound's success might make Nintendo re-evaluate Mother 3 for a western release. One can only hope.

From SEGA, we saw the 7th Dragon 2020-II opening movie, featuring Hatsune Miku. While Phantasy Star Online 2's North American release is still a mystery, a trio of videos for the Japanese version showcase the game's Shining Ark and 7th Dragon 2020 costumes, as well as this summer's release of PSO Episode 2. View all of these in our news story.

Gust's media blitz for Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky is in full swing, as we not only launched, but already have over 75 images in our gallery, with more on the way. We got a new look at designer Jane Jensen's Moebius in both a trailer and screen shots. Speaking of Kickstarter-funded games, Obsidian gave us a first look at Project Eternity, and if you love detailed 2D art, you need to see the trailer (and in HD).

And that, sugarcubes, was April in a nutshell. Even though it didn't have the shock value of multiple game announcements like last month, we're quite proud that we were able to bring you so many reviews and media updates in April, and we still have plenty more in the pipeline for the near future. May looks like it may prove light on releases, but who knows what surprises might be in store. Once again, I hope you found this retrospective useful, and hopefully you saw something you may have missed, or gave something another look. I still would love to hear your thoughts on this feature, so drop me a line via email or elsewhere and let me know. Thanks for reading!